ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter analyzes the change in the value orientations and political culture of Turkish society in recent decades with reference to the Europeanization process the country has been going through. Particularly in the Republican era, during which the country experienced a vast sociopolitical and sociocultural change, the concepts of modernization, Westernization and Europeanization have been interchangeably used to represent external influence on domestic transformation. In recent decades, this Western-style modernization has been embodied in the European Union (EU) accession process. With a political culture evolving through the clash between continuity and change ever since, sociopolitical and sociocultural confrontation has transpired between two major social groups with divergent value orientations and cultures. Center vs. periphery, modern vs. traditional, liberal vs. conservative, leftist vs. rightist, urbanite vs. rural, secular vs. religious; whatever one calls it, a deep cleavage emerged between these two camps with respect to lifestyles, world views and political preferences. Even though the struggle between these two groups has not been alleviated, it would be misleading to treat them as fixed social structures with rigid boundaries. First of all, the values at stake that define the confrontation between the two groups have evolved over time. Besides, the alliances that these two major groups have established with other groups have shifted continuously. Since this chapter scrutinizes the political culture of Turkish society, the general value orientations of the majority will be examined. Therefore, rather than analyzing the nature of the major sociocultural confrontation embodied in shifting centerperiphery relations, this chapter focuses on the dominant political culture of the society and the impact of Europeanization on value orientations, if any. Even if the picture depicted somewhat reflects the majority at the expense of other social groups and sub-groups, it gives clues on how the current struggle between the two major camps might unfold in the future. As the Europeanization of Turkish political culture is closely related to the consolidation of democracy in the country, the change in value orientations sustaining democracy would be an indicator showing the extent of societal Europeanization in Turkey. Taking into account the fact that a period of two decades is
quite a short span for the study of cultural change, this chapter mainly seeks to work out the change in the main cultural variables of the political culture that emerge as critical for a sustainable democracy according to European standards. Based on the World Values Survey (WVS), which has included data on Turkey since 1990, changes in the secular-rational and self-expression value orientations of Turkish society are examined vis-à-vis those dominant in European societies. Levels of religiosity, interpersonal trust and social tolerance are selected for cross-cultural comparison. Since education and civic engagement are two main channels through which Europeanization of such values could be effective, the chapter also focuses on human capital and social capital as two relevant factors imperative for sustaining democratic stability. The chapter will elaborate why Turkish society has been diverging from European societies on secularrational values and self-expression values at a time when the country has been experiencing a vast socioeconomic change where millions of people are moving into the middle income class. Regarding the mechanisms of the Europeanization process, this chapter makes use of sociological institutionalism as referred to in the Introduction to this volume. Sociological institutionalism assumes that “Europeanization leads to domestic change through a socialization and collective learning process resulting in norm internalization and the development of new identities” (Börzel and Risse 2003, p. 59). Europeanization in this context stands for the emergence of new rules, norms, practices and values. The key to sociological institutionalism is “a political culture and other informal institutions . . . which are conducive to consensus-building” (Börzel and Risse 2003, p. 68). Sociological institutionalism is a long-term and challenging path of Europeanization, and its impact on domestic change is quite difficult to identify. Therefore, this chapter diverges from the rest of the book, attempting to identify the extent of change in domestic policies, practices and institutions.
